History of the Clan Fraser
The Clan Fraser Society of Australia was formed in 1986 "to cultivate the spirit of kinship and fellowship among the descendants of Scottish Ancestors bearing the name Fraser, or any of its Septs." We are one of the five worldwide Clan Fraser Societies under the authority of the Rt. Hon. Lady Saltoun, Chief of the Name of Fraser, and the Rt. Hon. Lord Lovat, Chief of the Clan Fraser of Lovat.
From Clan
Fraser, A History, by Flora Marjory Fraser, 21st
Lady Saltoun
ORIGIN OF THE NAME FRASER
It is generally believed the name Fraser traces its origins to the
French provinces of Anjou and Normandy. The French word for strawberry
is fraise
and growers were called fraisiers. The
Fraser Arms are silver
strawberry flowers on a field of blue.
Only the Chief is entitled to use these arms plain
and undifferenced.
BEGINNING OF CLAN FRASER
They first appear in Scotland around 1160 when Simon Fraser made a gift
of a church at Keith in East Lothian to the monks at Kelso Abbey. These
lands eventually passed to a family who became Earls Marischal of
Scotland
after adopting Keith as their name. The Frasers moved into Tweedale in
the 12th and 13th
centuries and from there into
the counties of Stirling, Angus, Inverness and Aberdeen.
About five generations later, Sir Simon Fraser (the Patriot) was
captured
fighting for Robert the Bruce, and executed with great cruelty by
Edward
I in 1306. The Patriot’s line ended in two co-heiresses; the
elder daughter
married Sir Hugh Hay, ancestor of the Earls of Tweedale, and the
younger
married Sir Patrick Fleming, ancestor of the Earls of Wigtown.
Sir Andrew Fraser of Touch-Fraser [d.1297], cousin of the Patriot, was
the father of Sir Alexander Fraser of Cowie [ancestor of the Frasers of
Philorth], Sir Simon Fraser [ancestor of the Frasers of Lovat], Sir
Andrew
Fraser and Sir James Fraser of Frendraught. Sir Alexander was killed at
the Battle of Dupplin in 1332 and his three younger brothers were
killed
at the Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333.
FRASERS OF PHILORTH - LORDS SALTOUN
The Senior line is
descended from Sir Alexander
Fraser, who took part in the victory at Bannockburn in 1314. In 1316 he
married Robert the Bruce’s widowed sister, Lady Mary, who had
been imprisoned
in a cage by Edward I. Sir Alexander was appointed Chamberlain of
Scotland
in 1319, and his seal appears on the letter to the Pope dated 6th
April, 1320, known as The Declaration of Arbroath,
seeking recognition
of the country’s political independence under the kingship of
Robert Bruce.
Sir Alexander’s grandson, Sir Alexander Fraser of Cowie and
Durris, acquired
the Manor Place (later to become Cairnbulg Castle) and lands of
Philorth
by marriage with Lady Johanna, younger daughter and co-heiress of the
Earl of Ross. According to a prophecy of Thomas the Rhymer: While
a
cock craws in the north, there’ll be a Fraser at Philorth.
Several generations later, Sir Alexander Fraser, 8th
laird
of Philorth [c.1536-1623] founded Fraser’s Burgh by Royal
Charters obtained
in 1592 and built Fraserburgh Castle (now Kinnaird Head Lighthouse).
His
eldest son, Alexander Fraser, 9th laird of
Philorth [c.1570-1636)
married in 1595 Margaret, heiress of the Abernethies, Lords Saltoun. In
1668 their son, Alexander Fraser, 10th of
Philorth [1604-1693]
also became 10th Lord Saltoun.
The present Chief of the Name of Fraser is Flora Marjory Fraser, 21st
Lady Saltoun, who is an active member of the House of Lords.
FRASERS OF LOVAT – LORDS LOVAT
The Frasers of Lovat
descend from Sir Simon
Fraser [brother of Sir Alexander the Chamberlain] who married Lady
Margaret
Sinclair, daughter of the Earl of Caithness. Documents dated 12th
September, 1367, connect a Fraser with the lands of Lovat and the Aird.
Among the lands acquired by the Lovat Frasers, the prominent ones were
in Stratherrick, which was very dear to the hearts of the Lovat chiefs,
the church lands of Beauly Priory in Inverness-shire, part of the south
shore of Beauly Firth and the whole of Strathfarrar. About 1460 Hugh
Fraser,
6th Laird of Lovat [c.1436-1501] became the 1st
Lord Lovat.
Several generations later, Hugh Fraser, 9th Lord
Lovat [1666-1696]
who had four daughters but no son, willed his estates to his
grand-uncle,
Thomas Fraser of Beaufort, instead of his eldest daughter, Amelia
[1686-1763]
Thomas Fraser’s second son, Simon, later 11th
Lord Lovat, had
planned to marry the Lovat heiress, Amelia, but the plan failed, and in
retaliation, Simon forcibly married her mother, the dowager Lady Lovat
(the marriage was later annulled.) The 11th Lord
Lovat "The
Fox" plotted with both Government and Jacobite forces, and was the last
nobleman to be beheaded on Tower Hill, London, in 1747. The Lovat title
was attained by an Act of Parliament, and the estates forfeited to the
Crown. In 1774 the forfeited lands were restored to his eldest son,
Lt-General
Simon Fraser, Master of Lovat, but not the title. The original line
ended
with the death in 1815 of the Master’s younger half-brother,
Archibald,
without legitimate surviving issue.
The estates passed to the nearest collateral heir-male, Thomas
Alexander
Fraser, 10th laird of Strichen, Aberdeenshire,
who in 1837
was created Baron Lovat in the Peerage of the U.K, and the attainder of
the Scottish title was reversed in 1857, when he became 14th
Lord Lovat. With the death of the 17th Lord
Lovat in 1995,
aged 83, his grandson, Simon Fraser, born in 1977, became the 18th
Lord Lovat and 25th MacShimi, the Chief of the
Clan Fraser
of Lovat.
ARMS
Fraser: Azure, 3 fraises or cinquefoils argent
Fraser of Lovat: Quarterly 1st
& 4th
azure, 3 fraises or cinquefoils argent 2nd
& 3rd
argent, 3 antique crowns gules.
CREST BADGE
Fraser: On a mount a flourish of strawberries,
leaved and fructed
proper
Fraser of Lovat: A buck’s head erased
proper
MOTTO
Fraser: All my hope is in God
Fraser of Lovat: Je suis prest (I am ready)
PLANT BADGE
Yew